


Lights Out

by AnnieVH



Series: Don't Come Back [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Bad Parenting, Gen, papafire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-11
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-13 04:50:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5695471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnieVH/pseuds/AnnieVH
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary: Rumple goes back to Bae to tell him the news.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lights Out

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: past domestic abuse (including psychological, verbal and sexual), past child abuse, terrible parenting all around. Anti-Milah, anti-Malcolm. Rated mature just for safety.  
> Verse: Don't Come Back, a Behind Closed Doors remix  
> Beta: MaddieBonanaFana

The public transportation in Storybrooke was still unreliable and scarce, just like Rumple remembered. It was 11pm by the time he managed to get on a bus out of town, and by then he was too worried about Bae to even think about his father. He didn't like to leave the boy alone for so long, especially when he had no idea where Milah was. The last he'd heard from her, she had been harassing poor Tina for information, but that had been two days before. After that, his lawyer had no idea where she went, and Rumple didn't like that. Living with Milah for almost fifteen years had taught him that her silence could be more dangerous than her outbursts. She could have followed him and Bae out of Boston without him noticing, waited for him to be out of the motel, and then snatched the boy when he was away.

But when he returned, Bae was just where he had left him, sprawled on his bed, watching television. His chest was flooded with relief.

“That took a long time,” Bae commented.

“You think the buses on Boston ran slow? Just you wait,” he said, hiding his nerves with a quip. He pointed at the TV. “Shouldn't that be off by now?”

“I couldn't sleep,” he boy answered, sitting up and crossing his legs. “Did he say no?”

Rumple locked the door and peeked through the curtain one last time. Maybe he was being paranoid, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

“Dad?” his son insisted.

“He said yes,” Rumple muttered, still not entirely pleased with that outcome.

Bae let out a deep breath, his whole body relaxing. The poor boy had probably spent the last couple of hours just as scared as he had been. During the last year, his son had hit a growth spurt and was no longer a little boy, but he knew that didn't matter whenever Milah was concerned. Rumple was a grown man and he never stood a chance against her when they were married. And Milah could be cunning; if Bae was too strong for her to drag away kicking and screaming, she'd find another way to get him back.

“Well, that is a good thing, isn't it?” Bae asked, and Rumple shushed the scariest thoughts away.

“I'm still not sure,” he answered.

“But it is, you know, _safe_. Right?”

Rumple finally got away from the window.

“Yes,” she reassured him. “Yes, it is the safest place for us to be right now. Your mother would never think of looking for us there. And even if she did, your grandfather would keep her away.”

Bae nodded, but he didn't seem convinced. He knew Milah too well.

Rumple sat on his bed and brushed hair away from his forehead. “Don't worry, son. Everything is going to be alright. You trust me, don't you?”

“Yes.”

“Well,” he smiled, even though he didn't feel like it, “then trust me when I say that this is almost over. On Monday, we're going to move in with your grandfather and, as soon as I find a job, we're going to save up money and go back to Scotland.”

Bae tried to smile back. “What is grandpa like?”

Rumple thought carefully. “He is... willing to help. That counts for something.”

“But is he nice?”

An honest answer would be an indisputable “no”, but that would only set the boy on edge. And perhaps that was his childhood memories talking, which could be far from the truth. All he knew about his father now was that he was still petty, very likely a misogynist – god, what was he to do about the maid and that uniform? If his teenage son didn't spend all day _staring_ at the poor girl, he'd count that as a victory – but that was about it. Malcolm had agreed to help. It was possible that age had turned him, if not into a good person, at least a little bit softer.

“He is not your mother,” Rumple answered, and that was all that mattered to Bae right now. “He agreed to give us a place to stay, and that is what we need right now. He promised to keep you safe.”

“And... does he live alone?”

“He does. It will be just the three of us, but he was never very social when I was growing up.”

_Not with me, anyway._

“There's the maid, too,” Rumple added. “She seems like a good person. But I don't think she lives there.”

“Okay. And how about this town? What is it like?”

Rumple smiled at him. “Now you're just stalling. It's bedtime.”

He gave his son a kiss on the cheek and got up.

Bae sighed. “Couldn't fool you.”

“Never. I'm your father. Lights and TV out by the time I'm out of the shower.”

“Okay, dad.”

The water was not as warm as Rumple would have liked, but for what he was paying he should be glad it wasn't as cold as ice. It still felt good to stand beneath it and let the sound of running water deafen everything else, including his thoughts and worries. Two days, that was all they had left to get through. Two days. After that, everything was going to be fine. Bae would go back to school, Rumple would be able to find a steady source of income, and soon enough they'd be out of the country. For the first time since the divorce, that plan seemed possible.

The TV was off when Rumple came back to the tiny bedroom they had been sharing for a couple of days, and only the bedside lamp was on. Under the weak yellow light, he could see that Bae was already asleep, looking more serene than he had in days.

His own sleep, however, was troubled, as it was becoming the norm. It took him a full hour of lying perfectly still on the bed before he could finally fall asleep. And even then, his sleep was shallow and he remained aware of everything – Baelfire's breathing, the noise just outside their window, the feeling that something was wrong, the certainty that the room was not as empty as it seemed. Something was coming to the door. Something was standing at the foot of his bed. Something was lying by his side.

 _Honey_.

Rumple woke up with a jolt that made the old mattress creak. That voice, that vicious voice, saying a sweet word in that tone so cold that it made him shiver. He could even feel her breath, tickling his ear.

“Dad?”

“Go back to sleep,” he whispered towards the other bed, trying to keep his breathing under control so that he wouldn't alarm his son more than he already had.

Bae didn't insist and Rumple looked around the room, over and over and over and over-

 _Two more days_ , he thought to himself. _Two more days. Not even that. On Monday we're going to be out of here. On Monday, we're going to be safe._

 


End file.
